III

Like father, like son. If a paper can sell its editorial space, what stops the journalists working there to do so? Hence at least three journalists working with The Economic Times, a Times group publication, were sacked for accepting money from people for writing about them (or not writing about them) in their newspaper, reportedly the second-largest business daily in the world. A photographer with Bombay Times was transferred to another non-journalistic department because he asked a film actor to shell out money to get featured on the paper’s front page. The Times’ policy, in these cases, looks like: “Hey, we are here to take money from them, not you. Don’t we give you salaries?”

Says veteran journalist P K Ravindranath: “The same group that introduced this downslide had to get rid of seven staffers from its economic daily, as they did not hesitate to follow the leader. One of them is charged with extortion, for demanding hush money to keep out unsavoury things about a businessman. I have spent 21 long years of my life [1955-76] in the leader’s flagship, The Times of India. Never during that long time had matters been as disgraceful as is being reported now. At best we heard of how a reporter manoeuvred to get a free trip to a hill station or a suit length. The Emergency rule changed all that. After all, corruption was a global phenomenon; the political leader had adumbrated. To fit into this globalised environment were pitchforked into lofty chairs as adornments that would carry out the advertisement department’s whims and fancies. Freebooters emerged to haul in whatever they could while the going was good. That some of them paraded as journalists was enough to tarnish the profession as a whole. This would have happened if only the editor had not been little more than a figurehead innocent of the role of the reader to whom his primary duty was to provide news and information objectively, truthfully and with a high sense of fair play.”

Concurs well-known columnist V Gangadhar: “The unthinkable is happening. I came to know of this several months back while being the only media representative to cover an important international conference on cardiovascular surgery in Mumbai, attended by top-ranking heart surgeons from the world over. The big newspapers ignored the event because they wanted payment to cover the conference. I was shocked.”

Not many are. Says Venkatachari Jagannathan, a Chennai-based business journalist: “It’s only facts that are sacred and not the news story per se. If the editor ensures the credibility of the facts in the story, then there is nothing wrong in monetising the editorial space upfront as the advertisement department will do the same after publication. In a way, selling news space for a price legitimises what some reporters or news editors have been doing and profiting on the sly. Maybe, as a matter of caution, newspapers should permanently freeze the slots and pages for paid news stories. Like the cigarette packets that sport the statutory warning, newspapers at the page bottom specify those stories that are sponsored ones. Actually journalists should really practice what they preach. For instance, they write reams and reams against subsidies, but are conspicuously silent when it comes to subsidised houses for them. Not a question is being asked about the rationality or justification when a government constructs houses or housing colonies especially for journalists and sell them at dirt cheap rates. Again, is the media right in clamouring for subsidised postal rates for mailing newspapers and magazines? Shouldn’t concessional postal rates be offered to publications having a limited circulation? Well, this may generate another debate.”

Not at all. Some journalists are too happy. Like Rohit Gupta, a Mumbai-based columnist, though he puts it subtly, tongue firmly in cheek: “They are selling editorial space? This is great news. I hereby offer my services to The Times of India as a columnist. I am, of course, assuming that since they are selling that space, that they will pay their writers more. Share and enjoy (wink, wink)!” There are more similar voices. Says author Abhay Mehta: “Why should news be any different from other business? After all it’s a question of self-respect, and I think the debate itself is misleading.”

Is it so? Of course not, says Mohini Bhatnagar, a Gujarat-based journalist: “Journalists like Jagannathan tars the entire profession of journalists with the same brush. A few journalists do not the entire profession make.” Adds Shoma A Chatterjee, a film writer and journalist based in Kolkata: “Journalists will be reduced to pimps and salesmen, trying to woo the firms to have them write the PR pieces for their respective newspapers. As a freelance journalist for the last 22 years, and with a record of never having compromised on honesty and integrity for the sake of money or other material benefit, I personally place my strong protest against this kind of prostitution of the Fourth Estate. What would you then call the press, pray? The Pimping Estate? Sorry, I don’t buy, though I do write for the very paper we are talking about.”

IV

And what do the ‘others’ feel, people who help ‘plant’ stories — the PR people? Sample three:

1) Rama Naidu, secretary general, Public Relations Consultants Association of India, Gurgaon: “As an association, we go by what is accepted and being expressed internationally on this issue, as we are affiliated to ICCO, the mother body of worldwide PR associations, and we follow their standards and codes of ethics. Here in India, the practice has been prevalent for some time, though out in the open only recently. We hear about trade magazines selling cover space/stories, dailies, their supplement sections and what was considered editorial space till recently. Media hungry clientele and their media fixers or service providers are to be blamed for this. We all know where there are buyers, sellers emerge. But, we need to question the ethics of journalism. Where is it going? It is a point to be debated and eventually a code of ethics drawn up for the profession as is done by the US Society of Professional Journalists.”

2) Himanshu Kapadia, chief operating officer, Concept Public Relations, Mumbai: “It is a novel concept and it was present before as an advertorial medium. The idea is interesting, as at least one is sure that by paying money your news is featured. But how the reader treats the news could be researched. But, frankly, the line between advertising and PR is totally merged with this kind of news.”

3) Kapil Rampal, chief executive officer, Creative Crest, New Delhi: “Revenue is the mainstay of any business, including the media. Irrespective of all media innovations, editorial space remains the most sought-after by businesses. It is owing to the credibility that is attached with the editorial space. If the editorial space is sold, it will dilute the credibility of the media. In the long run, it will do more harm than good for the media. In the case of Times, particularly, it has already overusing their editorial space to promote their group activities such as Femina Miss India, Times Music, and several properties of Indiatimes.com. The readers are intelligent enough to identify paid editorials and ignore them. It might benefit the competing publications. For some PR agencies, it will provide an opportunity of achieving targets at the cost of billings.

V

Finally, a newspaper is edited, printed and published for the reader. What do you say?

(Sunil K Poolani, a Mumbai-based journalist, recently edited a book, The Rape of News, which discusses the issue of selling editorial space in newspapers. He can be contacted at spoolani@hotmail.com).

Back